1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an air and gas washer or scrubber which is adapted to remove dirt, dust, gases, and other impurities from an air flow with the use of a fluid and, more particularly, to a cyclonic flow scrubber which utilizes some recycled fluid in the scrubbing process.
2. Description of Related Art
It has been long known in the art to provide a cyclonic scrubbing tower having an inlet which receives a stream of "dirty" fluid, such as air, wherein the air is "washed" by removing large and small particles alike from the entering air stream. The entering air stream is typically passed upwardly in the tower in a cyclonic fashion which tends to fling larger particles in the air stream outwardly. In addition, a stream of fluid (such as water or oil) is passed into the air stream which catches smaller particles contained therein. A scrubbing tower of this type is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,354,674 to Fisher, U.S. Pat. No. 2,259,033 to Fisher, and U.S. Pat. No. 2,141,829 to Schneible. The disclosures of these several references is expressly incorporated herein by reference.
These types of scrubbing towers typically introduce clean fluid into the entering air stream to catch the entrained particles. The fluid is pumped from a source into the scrubbing tower and allowed to drain out of the bottom of the tower. Introducing a continuous stream of clean fluid into the scrubbing tower is costly to maintain.
It is also known in the prior art to provide an outlet conduit from the scrubbing tower which is fluidly interconnected with a pump. The pump transports any fluid entering the outlet conduit to an upstream portion of the scrubbing tower to recycle the cleaning fluid therein. An example of such a scrubbing tower is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,141,829 to Schneible, issued Dec. 27, 1938.